Sps tips dying

  • Thread starter Thread starter lyscer
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I have 6 fish in the tank and they have been in there for a few months. This is part of the reason I am so stumped as to why my nitrates keep dropping to zero.

- 2 Clowns
- Yellow Corris Wrasse
- Divided Leopard Wrasse
- 1 Blue Chromis
- banded pipefish

Sounds like other than my possible AEFW problem I have an alk problem that is compounding things here. Sounds like I may need to switch salt brands to lower my ALK?
 
@Russ265; A couple of corals that I have (Like the one that I posted the most recent picture of has been receding from the base up for months. I have 2 others in my tank that are in the same boat. They get bone white at the base and then the branches on the SPS will slowly turn white from the base up until the entire branch is bone white then another branch will be effected. This is a super slow process though. I have been losing a highlighter acro for months this way. It is only a frag with 3-4 branches but lately it has been going quicker. Not sure if this is the high alk/alk swing issue or something else. All I know is I am learning a lot this time around with my tank. I've encountered a ton of problems in the last year that I never had with my other tank that I had for 3 years. It is definitely discouraging to have problem after problem - I'm really hoping that with everyone's help I can straighten this out and get into maintenance mode rather than defense mode.

Thanks everyone!
 
@Russ265; A couple of corals that I have (Like the one that I posted the most recent picture of has been receding from the base up for months. I have 2 others in my tank that are in the same boat. They get bone white at the base and then the branches on the SPS will slowly turn white from the base up until the entire branch is bone white then another branch will be effected. This is a super slow process though. I have been losing a highlighter acro for months this way. It is only a frag with 3-4 branches but lately it has been going quicker. Not sure if this is the high alk/alk swing issue or something else. All I know is I am learning a lot this time around with my tank. I've encountered a ton of problems in the last year that I never had with my other tank that I had for 3 years. It is definitely discouraging to have problem after problem - I'm really hoping that with everyone's help I can straighten this out and get into maintenance mode rather than defense mode.

Thanks everyone!

if it was me....
id get a melanarus wrasse.
id pull all unaffected corals out and wait 2-3 months before adding any more sps.

if that is not doable. get bayer from home depot and do a bayer dip on any salvageable corals.

of course i would be clipping tips 1/4 above the white on any coral before doing this, and chucking the rest in the trash.

dont feel bad.
last year alone:
my tank drove me up the wall til i dosed nitrate and phosphate due to my light bioload.
then i got a cyano outbreak and treated it with chemiclean.
after the cyano was gone, a month later i had dinos. eventually had to dose peroxide for 3 months.
then my return pump died due to some spiderweb white bacteria clogging my sponge filter and my pump ran dry.
and by december i was on my last led panel as my other 3 burned out.

this year has been pretty solid so far ;)

...so no. it isnt hopeless
 
For the planaria flatworm I dosed with 2.5x recommended dosage of FWE and it killed off most of them but I have been seeing a slow increase in their numbers lately so I am thinking about starting to do my bi-weekly vacuums on them and then doing another round of FWE.
 
For the planaria flatworm I dosed with 2.5x recommended dosage of FWE and it killed off most of them but I have been seeing a slow increase in their numbers lately so I am thinking about starting to do my bi-weekly vacuums on them and then doing another round of FWE.
Make sure you run a LOT of carbon when doing the treatments
The toxicity is underestimated by many when they die
Last year that's when I lost a lot of my sps.. toxic waters
 
Measured the new salt water when I did my change today. Numbers came out as follows:
Salinity: 1.027
Alk: 12.2dKH
CA:460

So super high alk. Think I should mix that salt with something like oceanic to settle it down?
 
Measured the new salt water when I did my change today. Numbers came out as follows:
Salinity: 1.027
Alk: 12.2dKH
CA:460

So super high alk. Think I should mix that salt with something like oceanic to settle it down?

12 dkh. you better have 5+ no3 and .04 po4.

otherwise let it settle down.

i use instant ocean. if i want lower alk ill use the regular purple stuff. otherwise itll be the orange reef crystals
 
I wanted to post another picture of the next coral to fall victim to whatever is going on. It had 90% tissue 2 days ago. Woke up to what looked like the tissue is falling off.
692127c9d8e11d1f03a7303118450bdf.jpg


I checked my all and salinity and nitrates.
Alk:9
Salinity: 1.026
Nitrates 3-4ppm. The color is in between 2/5 colors.

I was planning on starting Bayer dips this weekend.
 
I'm not quite sure what's going on. My mushrooms have been shriveled up all week and my torches are not as full as they normally are. My other lps look good and my sps aren't showing any signs of major stress. I have been monitoring my alk and it is staying pretty steady around the 9dKH mark even post water changes. My TDS is still at zero too. I think I may take Diesels advice from other threads and start doing bi-weekly water changes (5gal each) for a bit to see if things start to improve vs weekly water changes. You can see my algae bloom (rust and red stringy)
4ecd4f24d6dba618fffefd6a9d874d50.jpg
 
Your bulbs need to be replaced. They start dying at the 9 month mark. With dying bulbs you'll have corals lose tissue, corals lose color, brown algae growth, as well as many other things are possible (these are just some things I experienced when my bulbs died).
 
I actually increased my temperature and brought my calcium up to the 450 mark and things peeked up quite a bit.

I found that my heater wasn't able to keep up with the temperature in the early hours in the morning so I was having some temp swings that would sometimes drop me into the 75 range. Once I added the second heater and got things at 79 they have been happier.
 

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